Life and politics from the Sunshine State's best city

Chris King

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris King responded to the Las Vegas massacre by lashing out at “Florida’s one-party government” for not pursuing gun law changes after the Pulse nightclub massacre, saying it is time for action.

John Morgan — who has been flirting a political campaign — is leading the Democratic field in the Florida governor’s race. In a new poll of 263 likely Democratic voters by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Orlando-based trial lawyer has the support of 23 percent, a number putting him well ahead of former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, who is in second place at 15 percent.

Declaring it is time for Florida to “modernize” it’s voting systems, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris King unveiled a policy statement Tuesday calling for universal voter registration and for voters to vote anywhere in their county.

To usher in the final weeks of the St. Petersburg mayoral race, incumbent Rick Kriseman is calling in a political heavy hitter — veteran Democratic consultant Omar Khan. Kahn is joining the Kriseman campaign as a senior adviser.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham believes Florida should have been better prepared to handle the impact of Hurricane Irma. “The state of Florida was not ready for this storm,” Graham declared Saturday night. The 54-year-old attorney and former Tallahassee-area congresswoman made the comments while delivering the keynote address before a record crowd at the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee’s annual Kennedy-King Dinner in downtown Tampa.

Democratic candidates for governor are hitting Gov. Rick Scott and others hard in the wake of eight deaths in a South Florida nursing home that lost its air conditioning as Hurricane Irma hit the state. But Scott’s office defended the governor’s actions, saying the facility never reported “that conditions had become dangerous.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Latvala joined the chorus of so far mostly Democrats calling for preservation of the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program to let young, undocumented immigrants stay in the United States. Latvala, the state senator from Clearwater, directed his call not at President Donald Trump, who has signaled he will end the President Barack Obama program as early as Tuesday, but at Congress and the Republican Party.